


Five times Robert called Aaron his boyfriend

by zoeteniets



Series: It's a cliché for a reason, honey [2]
Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Domestic, Gordon's trial, Hospitals, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-22
Updated: 2016-10-22
Packaged: 2018-08-23 23:43:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8347417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zoeteniets/pseuds/zoeteniets
Summary: ... and one time he didn't. Spanning from the abuse story line to the end of 'no return' week.





	

1.

The first time he says it, it is almost, almost, a lie. 

He’s worried about Aaron; he’s still in a bad way, and after everything that had been confessed the night before about his dad and his childhood, Rob wouldn’t put it past him to fall even more into self-destruct mode.

In fact, going to the hospital is an act borne out of hope than anything else. But when he asks for Aaron at reception he thinks he sees a flicker of recognition on the nurse’s face.

When he says, “what if I told you he wasn’t just a friend” there is no lie, because there is no way on earth that ‘friend’ adequately describes their relationship. But when he says “Aaron’s my boyfriend” the word is slippery on his tongue. 

For a dreadful second he thinks the nurse might accuse him of lying and refuse to tell him where Aaron is.

But really, it’s not a lie is it? It’s just he never thought he’d call someone ‘boyfriend’, be someone’s boyfriend, not once before in his life.

Until Aaron. 

 

2.

He’s not late for the court hearing, he’s just hanging back because Aaron told him not to be there. Thing is, Robert can’t get Aaron’s admission that he’s find his presence distracting out of his head. To be honest, it’s giving him loads of ideas about all the ways he could be distracting to Aaron and _none_ of them are appropriate for the setting.    

But hanging back means that he can’t follow the Dingles into Aaron’s court hearing. Which is a pain, because Leeds crown court is pretty big and the signs are all woefully unhelpful.

So he has to go to reception and awkwardly ask, “could you direct me to the trial of Gordon Livsey? I need to be there to support my boyfriend.”

The security guard gives him directions, and he makes it into the public gallery just before proceedings start. And then he’s too busy then to wonder why it was so automatic that he said he was there for his boyfriend. Why it was so essential for him to tell someone that Aaron was important to him. Why it was necessary for him to put some form of personal claim on Aaron.

He’d need to have a sit down and think about that. Later.

 

3.

Summer is just beginning to break. Which is nice because it means the scrapyard portacabin is, for once, neither too cold not too hot. And he knows how uncomfortable the office can be because he’s had sex in it. More than once.

He’s trying not to let his mind wonder to thinking about some of the more fun things he and Aaron have done in here. Getting a boner when you’re on the phone to a client is unprofessional, though easy to understand, Robert reckons, when the office totty is so damn tempting.

Said office totty is unfortunately out on a job though, which is why Robert is the one on the phone to a slightly irate client.

“Yeah, sorry, let me just find the invoice” he says, phone pinned to his ear as he riffles through the in-tray, “sorry it’s taking a while. It’s just that my boyfriend is hopeless with paperwork.”

“Boyfriend?” says the voice on the other end.

“Yeah, Aaron, you might have spoken to him on the phone. He’s one of the co-owners… Ah, here it is!” He says pulling the invoice free from the others.

They talk business on the phone for a while, the customer’s mood seeming considerably lighter. So much so, that Robert is even able to wheedle a few more jobs out of him.

They’re just finalising the deals when the customer blurts out, “my boyfriend is a bit ditzy like that too.”

Rob is momentarily confused by the sudden change in direction of the conversation. Then he is confused as to why anyone would call Aaron “ditzy.”

“He phoned me once, I was in the middle of this enormous deal, we’re talking hundreds of thousands of pounds, international and everything,” the customer continues in a rush, “and he phones me, in tears, because he can’t figure out how the washing machine works. Says all he wanted to do was make the house nice for me to come home to, and he’s sorry for making a mess. I think that’s when I knew he was the one, y’know?”

Robert nods automatically, “yeah, I know.”

 

4.

He’s trying to get on with Liv. He is really, really trying goddamn it. And the worst thing is he does actually quite like the kid. How could he not when she is a virtual mini-me of her brother? But right now, at this moment in time, she seems to have been sent to this house with the sole purpose of vexing him.

Is it so much to ask for just a few moments alone with his boyfriend?

Except this is what is seeming to cause the problem. Rob wants Aaron all to himself, and so does Liv.

“Look, Liv, please. All I want is an evening alone with Aaron” he pleads.  

She gives him some snappy reply about how he clearly doesn’t want her there, and how he hates her, and she hates him. There’s some more teenaged angst in there somewhere he’s sure, but he’s only half listening because his ears have tuned in to the sound of Aaron’s voice outside in the bar.

“I don’t hate you Liv!” he nearly shouts, “I don’t, I swear. I’m sorry alright? I just really wanted to spend my birthday with my boyfriend.”

“Your birthday?” she asks, gaping at him like a fish.

“Yes.” He replies. He figures he should go for the whole story, “It’s my birthday this weekend, and it’s kinda a big one, and I was hoping to spend it on holiday with Aaron. And then you arrived. Which is totally fine!” he adds, very quickly, “because if you are important to Aaron then you are important to me. And I know this is selfish of me but I would very much like to have a little bit of time with him before I turn 30 and he no longer wants me because I am old and decrepit.”

She gives him that half squinting look she does, then she turns on her heel, flips her ponytail over her shoulder, and storms off.  

Robert lets out a sigh, convinced he has blown everything. He walks through to the pub to join Aaron, but he can’t settle, so he finishes his pint and goes back through to the living room to see if he can try apologising to Liv yet again.  

She’s not downstairs though. But on the coffee table is a note.

“For you and your boyfriend” it says in haphazard scrawl. And underneath is the address of a hotel outside Leeds, a time, and a telephone number. 

He can’t help but smile.

 

5.

“Hello!” says a cheery, female voice on the other end of the phone, “you’ve reached the office of Woodrow and Daughter estate agents, Hotton branch. Claire speaking, how may I help you?”

“Urgh yes, hi” says Robert, trying to keep his voice down, “my boyfriend and I are looking into getting a place together, and I was phoning to ask whether you have any properties available in Emmerdale?”

“Oh wonderful, Sir” Claire says, “let me just take a few details and I’ll see what I can do for you. Will this be the first property that you and your boyfriend have together?”

“Yes, this is our first”

“Wonderful! Big step moving in together. How exciting!”

They talk for a while about mortgages and house sizes and whether they’d like a garden or not. Rob wasn’t expecting much given that there’s only so many houses in the village. But after a while on the phone he’s got a few options of places he and Aaron could be quite happy in. For all that her enthusiasm is irritating, Claire seems to be exceptionally good at her job. She has even talked him into thinking about the possibility of buying some land and building a house, rather than buying one. 

A home that is totally and utterly theirs? It all sounds very idyllic. 

 

\+ 1.

He’s not leaving the hospital. Not for anything.

This has nothing to do with the fact that he still feels awful for not being with Aaron in the ambulance.

Well, maybe it does.

But he’s here now and he’s not going anywhere until Aaron can come with him too.

“Look, babe, I love you, but you could really do with a shower and a change of clothes” Aaron says to him, “you smell like pond-water.”

“Nope, I’m not going anywhere without you” He’s still holding Aaron’s hand. 

“Look at me Rob, I’m not going anywhere” Aaron says, gesturing to the various machines he’s still hooked up to. “The doctors all say I’m out of the woods, and that you should go and get some rest before you do yourself some harm”

“Please don’t try to guilt me Aaron. I can’t leave you”

Something in his voice makes Aaron pause, he can see it in his face.

Then he says, “I’m not asking you to leave me” he squeezes, Robert’s hand, “and if you would rather come back and sleep here then that is totally up to you. I just want you to be safe. But please, please, go take a shower and get changed because you may not know this, but the nurses are starting to complain about the smell” he grins, “also, I really need a few clean pairs of underwear myself yeah?”

It’s the ‘need’ that does it isn’t it. He can’t resist Aaron at all, and he knows it.

“I thought I was meant to be the manipulative one in this relationship” he mutters, running his fingers through Aaron’s hair.

___

 

He goes home and showers like a good boyfriend. He chucks all his clothes in the bin because they are beyond saving, and he does feel a bit better once he is all scrubbed clean.

He moves through to the bedroom, towel around his waist, and picks up his deodorant. But he must not be concentrating because it slips through his fingers and rolls under the bed. He clambers on top of the bed to reach under it in a move so inelegant it would surely have made Aaron laugh. As he reaches for it he presses his face deeply into the pillow, and he is rewarded with the scent of Aaron and him together all around him.  

The next thing he is aware of is a yelp from the doorway.

“Sorry, sorry!” says Charity, dramatically flinging her hand to cover her eyes, “if you don’t want people looking you should close the bedroom door. And put some clothes on!”

He looks at the screen of his phone as she runs down the stairs.

Its 5 p.m. He must have fallen asleep as soon as his face hit the pillow. He’s been out for three hours.

He gets dressed so fast he almost gives himself whiplash.

___

 

In Aaron’s kit bag he has packed several changes of clothes, three magazines, a deodorant, a toothbrush, and a pair of hideously un-sexy socks that Aaron likes to wear to bed on colder nights because he says his feet get cold. 

He hurries through the ward to the room that Aaron was in.

Only to find it empty.

The world stops.

He rushes to the information desk, completely frantic.

“Help me please” he says, “my fiancé, Aaron Dingle, was in that room there, but he’s not there anymore. He’s just had a major operation, we were in a car crash, and I need to know he’s ok. Oh my God, did he have a relapse…?”

The nurse holds up her hand to get him to stop.

“Aaron’s fiancé? Robert, right?” he nods, “yes Aaron said you would be worried. He told me to tell you that he is completely fine, and that he’s sorry for worrying you, but a bed on Gledhow ward became available so we moved him whilst you were away. I can get someone to show you the way there now if you’d like?”

Robert lets out a breath he didn’t know he was holding, “he’s fine? He’s not back in surgery?”

“His condition is progressing very nicely,” the nurse replies, “and it’s nice to see that Aaron will have someone to take care of him when he’s discharged.”

“Of course he will” Robert says immediately.

___

 

Aaron looks very sheepish when Robert finds him on the new ward. He reaches out and pulls Robert in for a kiss which he gratefully falls into.  

“You weren’t too worried, were you?” he asks in between kisses, “after you didn’t come back for over an hour I figured you might have actually done what you’d been told and gone to get some sleep. I asked the ward nurse to phone you and tell you, but they’re so busy…”

“It’s fine” Rob says, “I’ll admit that I really didn’t enjoy turning up and finding you gone. But I’m just glad you’re here now.”

They kiss for a little while longer until Aaron begins to wince a little, and even then he pouts when Robert pulls away. 

“You know, actually, something good did come from that scare you gave me” says Robert thoughtfully, “it’s the first time I got to call you my fiancé out loud.”

Aaron hums, “it does sound good. Say it again.”

“Fiancé” Robert says, grinning.

Aaron smiles back. 

**Author's Note:**

> The washing machine anecdote and the calling each other ‘babe’ thing are both stolen from my friend’s relationships. The whole thing about Robert’s thirtieth birthday is something I wish we had seen on the show because the trip to Barcelona was supposed to happen that weekend and I can’t help but think that was Rob’s birthday present to himself. The idea to have Rob phone the estate agent came from the fact that Rob seems to have a habit of saying ‘let’s go slow’ and then immediately doesn’t go slow. 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed! Come scream at me on tumblr if you like. I’m iwillsendapostcard xxx


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